Long Shifts, Lousy Days
by spoodle monkey
Summary: Hodges is his knight in shining armour. GregxHodges


Disclaimer: Nope, don't own.

A/N- Soooooo...yeah. I'm not even sure what to say- my brain is kind of fried. :D First attempt at this pairing...I think. Enjoy! (I do love Grissom btw, but he was the first one to pop into my head for this role...)

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Sometimes Greg screws up- it's not often, but eventually everyone does, right? Right. He knows this, he accepts this and he works harder to make sure it doesn't happen often. Or at all. And if he does screw up then he takes responsibility for it and works to fix the problem.

This though- this isn't even really his fault.

Well, okay. It might be his fault _a little_. But, he's not the only one to blame. He wasn't the only one with the evidence, wasn't the only one who slipped and accidentally contaminated it. Hey- he'd been trying to catch Catherine when the evidence had gotten contaminated.

She's not in the room though. In fact, he hasn't seen her since Grissom tracked him down.

So he's fully willing to take partial responsibility for this, but it looks like he might be taking _all_ the blame for this one.

Now, Greg _hates_ being yelled at. There isn't much more he hates. Well, aside from the fact that their suspect- the one that they had _known_ was guilty but couldn't prove without the aforementioned contaminated evidence- was going to walk away free. But being yelled at is near the top of the list.

He hates it even more when there's a crowd to watch.

The break room isn't packed full of people watching the show but that doesn't mean it's empty. Nick and Warrick sit on the couch in the corner, heads bent together, half pretending they're not listening, and half watching with slight horror. Jacqui watches over the top of her magazine, eyes narrowed, but with what, he's not sure. And Archie's been standing at the fridge for eight minutes and twenty-seven seconds: the amount of time that Grissom has been yelling at him.

See, Greg knows that Grissom doesn't lose his temper easily, or often. He can count on one hand the amount of times that he's seen Grissom lose it- and only two of the times have been with a CSI.

Somehow that makes it all so much worse.

His face is burning and he's actively trying to shrink down to the size of a microscopic organism because then maybe he'd be so small that Grissom would forget about him and they would all be able to move on and put this all behind them.

It doesn't seem to be working.

Grissom takes a deep breath, like he's getting ready for another ten rounds of _lets make Greg feel worse than he already does_- when Hodges walks in.

_Not him_, Greg thinks somewhat desperately, because he can take Hodges hearing about all of this second hand through all the gossip he swears he doesn't participate in, but this? This is pretty much up there with your classic coming to school naked dream.

Hodges glances from Greg to Grissom and back again and Greg can't read the expression on his face.

He's pretty sure that Grissom isn't embarrassing him in front of the guy he might, kind of be _in love with_ on purpose, especially since Grissom doesn't even know Greg is bi, but it kind of feels that way as he keeps yelling and Greg sinks further into his chair.

He darts a glance over at Hodges, who is still standing in the door, brow furrowed in confusion and brown folder clasped loosely in his hands. Any second now he's certain glee will spread across the lab techs face, or maybe pity because they had become friends recently.

Greg is a scientist so he knows of at least one way a person can die by embarrassment and he suspects he's heading right for it.

"_Hey!_"

Grissom breaks off, mid rant and the room falls silent. All eyes turn to the man now standing toe to toe with the older CSI. Grissom blinks, looking just as confused as Greg feels. And Hodges- well Hodges looks _furious._ Cheeks red, hands clenching into fists and crumpling the folder in the process and eyes sparking- he looks _gorgeous. _

"It was an _accident_," He grinds out, looking ready to deck Grissom- so completely opposite from the usual adoring look he aims towards him. "_Back off_."

Grissom blinks again, startled and Hodges takes the opportunity to shove the folder at him.

"Catherine brought me the rest of the evidence." He bites out; still glaring at their boss like this couldn't get him into trouble. "We have enough for a conviction."

Grissom flips the folder open and scans the wrinkled sheets.

"Ah." He says, suddenly lost in his own world and then turns on heel and leaves like he _hasn't_ just spent the last ten minutes tearing Greg's head off.

Greg lets out an explosive breath and sinks into his chair, tilting sideways until he can rest his head on the cool surface of the break table. A chair is pulled up next to his and Hodges sinks into it, worried frown on his face as he stares at Greg.

"Thanks." He says, but it doesn't really feel like enough. "You're my knight in shining armour."

Hodges snorts and props his head up in one hand. "If you're cracking jokes already then you must be fine."

Well, he's not exactly fine- he actually feels like he's been run over a couple of times, but he's feeling much better.

"But just to be sure," Hodges continues, glancing away and Greg watches with fascination as his cheeks flush pink again, and this time not from anger. "Maybe I should keep an eye on you for awhile, maybe take you out for breakfast after the shift." He darts a look at Greg out of the corner of his eyes.

Greg grins, so wide it hurts and sits up.

"You have yourself a date."

Warrick snorts across the room, clearly still listening and Greg glances over in time to catch Nick swat the back of his head. He rolls his eyes at the two men and stands. He has to get back to working on the case, but at least now he has the promise of a breakfast date with Hodges to look forwards to.

He pauses before he leaves though and bends over, pressing a quick kiss to Hodges cheek and watches as the blush spreads even further across his face.

"Thanks again Dave." He murmurs before heading back to work.


End file.
